Dear Captain"How can I find normal size whitebait when the frye bait is around?"

Mr. Yarborough,

Every year the whitebait will spawn during the first or second week of July. The flats and places we catch bait will be covered with the small fry whitebait. We call these net wreckers.

The two things you can do to avoid the net wreckers and get bigger baits are:

Move to the closest drop off from the flat you are currently getting the small fry.

Switch to a 1/4 inch mesh which will let you release the small fry without getting caught in the mesh and keep the bigger baits.

When the bait spawns, it usually takes about two weeks for the fry to get big enough where it does not get caught in the mesh. The problem is that the big baits don't always spawn at the exact time. During the spawn, the small fry will come in waves for those two weeks, so it will take about four weeks until it is safe to go back to 3/8ths mesh. Now for the bait near Hudson. You can catch it just north of the Cotee River, north of the stilt houses in approx 4 feet of water. The baits have been bigger there.